duesselmartin
Established Member
Germany consideres building or re opening a dedicated freight route to Antwerpen. It would not do it If If where not a commercial centre.
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Surely that cannot happen until through bookings Amsterdam to London are allowed.
You mean major seaport.Germany consideres building or re opening a dedicated freight route to Antwerpen. It would not do it If If where not a commercial centre.
It is also a really pleasant city and the Antwerp Centraal is on of the nicest stations in the world I have had the pleasure of passing through.It's the 2nd biggest city of Belgium, and it's home to a lot of companies. The city also has a port, which is the 2nd busiest in the whole of Europe (after Rotterdam). There is a lot of commercial activity going on in the port area as well.
Personally, I don't see the business case for Antwerp; I have my doubts about the patronage. Whereas Amsterdam and Rotterdam have also a large hinterland, Antwerp much less so. People from Ghent/Mechelen/Turnhout are much better off travelling via Brussels. Only people living in Breda would benefit, as people from Tilburg/Eindhoven would prefer the one-change Rotterdam change. Currently, the Thalys that stops there already sees a relatively small amount of passengers compared to the other Thalys stops on this route. And a very large amount of these passengers are tourists, not per se business people.
Secondly, the station design makes it basically impossible to get a dedicated platform with security going; the through platforms are heavily used as is, and closing it for x time severely limits the operability. Furthermore, I see not much space for where the passport and customs checks would have to happen, if at all. Best chance would be on the platform itself, but it'll be a lot of work to clear this in time for the London-bound Eurostar and redirect trains around it for 20-30 minutes before a scheduled departure. The only place where this could work would be on platform 6 on the top-level, but then the train would have to reverse in Antwerp and go via the Eastern Ring, adding way too much time.
With 4-7 trains per hour Brussels-Antwerp taking between 25 and 35 minutes, I'd think it makes life much easier to not stop in Antwerp, no matter how pretty the station is.
This is a valid point, there is absolutely no space for all the security stuff which is needed for a Eurostar operation.Secondly, the station design makes it basically impossible to get a dedicated platform with security going; the through platforms are heavily used as is, and closing it for x time severely limits the operability. Furthermore, I see not much space for where the passport and customs checks would have to happen, if at all. Best chance would be on the platform itself, but it'll be a lot of work to clear this in time for the London-bound Eurostar and redirect trains around it for 20-30 minutes before a scheduled departure.
The only place where this could work would be on platform 6 on the top-level, but then the train would have to reverse in Antwerp and go via the Eastern Ring, adding way too much time.
Antwerp <> Brussels South takes 46 minutes.With 4-7 trains per hour Brussels-Antwerp taking between 25 and 35 minutes, I'd think it makes life much easier to not stop in Antwerp, no matter how pretty the station is.
Antwerp <> Brussels South takes 46 minutes.
The Dutch railways and ministry of infrastructure currently have plans to send all international trains to Amsterdam Zuid, including Eurostar.(Zuid would chop 10 mins, but not happening clearly).
So that fancy customs area they built to accommodate Eurostar will end up being rendered surplus to requirements shortly after its introduction? Glad it's not just us that lack a certain amount of foresight with our transport planning!The Dutch railways and ministry of infrastructure currently have plans to send all international trains to Amsterdam Zuid, including Eurostar.
The extra platforms (let alone the €* faciiities) are not quite there yetSo that fancy customs area they built to accommodate Eurostar will end up being rendered surplus to requirements shortly after its introduction? Glad it's not just us that lack a certain amount of foresight with our transport planning!
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Secondly, the station design makes it basically impossible to get a dedicated platform with security going; the through platforms are heavily used as is, and closing it for x time severely limits the operability. Furthermore, I see not much space for where the passport and customs checks would have to happen, if at all. Best chance would be on the platform itself, but it'll be a lot of work to clear this in time for the London-bound Eurostar and redirect trains around it for 20-30 minutes before a scheduled departure. The only place where this could work would be on platform 6 on the top-level, but then the train would have to reverse in Antwerp and go via the Eastern Ring, adding way too much time.
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The Dutch railways and ministry of infrastructure currently have plans to send all international trains to Amsterdam Zuid, including Eurostar.
They're currently working on a few big projects to increase capacity at Amsterdam Zuid (adding two platforms) as well as increasing comfort and safety at Amsterdam Centraal (by widening platforms) and completely remodeling the throats on both sides of the station.
The plans are to bring the A10 motorway underground, and to build two additional overground platforms. It would be through platforms, so trains can access the Watergraafsmeer TMD.Would these new (400m?) platforms at Zuid be underground, and stubs? The highway is right there, so I can't quite see where they would go. Admittedly, access to the city is now much less of a problem with the N/S metro line, which has capacity. Bit of a rubbish arrival for visitors, in comparison...
So what was different about the desire to cut the 3 hour time down on the Brussels and Paris route? Was it all down to HS1 or was work done on the Belgium side? Also I believe the older Eurostar train holds the speed record despite these trains being slower than the new trains.There are no plans to build a dedicated high speed line between Brussels and Antwerp. There are other projects going on to reduce journey times.
Infrabel are currently constructing the 'Rail Bypass Mechelen', a project which will add two new tracks to Mechelen station and will allow HSTs through Mechelen station at 160 km/h (currently 100 km/h).
Infrabel are also working on optimising other parts of the route, there are plans to replace the current Y. Otterbeek junction with a couple of flying junctions which will help alleviate some constraints. However, this project is still in the early stages and funding hasn't been secured yet.
Another option for Antwerp could be to build new station outside the existing one like in the UK we have Ebbsfleet
So what was different about the desire to cut the 3 hour time down on the Brussels and Paris route? Was it all down to HS1 or was work done on the Belgium side? Also I believe the older Eurostar train holds the speed record despite these trains being slower than the new trains.
They are working on Paris to Milan in 4 hours so I’m surprised there isn’t a desire for a quicker service to Amsterdam. Is 2 hours the best we can hope for to Brussels and Paris? I believe journey times were cut with the new trains.
There are no plans to build a dedicated high speed line between Brussels and Antwerp. There are other projects going on to reduce journey times.
Infrabel are currently constructing the 'Rail Bypass Mechelen', a project which will add two new tracks to Mechelen station and will allow HSTs through Mechelen station at 160 km/h (currently 100 km/h).
Infrabel are also working on optimising other parts of the route, there are plans to replace the current Y. Otterbeek junction with a couple of flying junctions which will help alleviate some constraints. However, this project is still in the early stages and funding hasn't been secured yet.
So what was different about the desire to cut the 3 hour time down on the Brussels and Paris route?
Yes 2 hours is the best you can hope for. It is a long way, and on High Speed Line almost the whole way except for the Channel Tunnel, and approaches to Gare du Nord and Brussels Midi. In the highly unlikely event that the LGV Picardie gets built, that might knock 15-20 minutes off the London Paris time, but I can’t see the French Government spending £5bn+ to save journey time to a country outside the EU.